Happy Birthday Maya

It was one year ago today that we welcomed little Maya into the world. Looking at pictures of her then it seems almost shocking how tiny she was. Doesn't seem possible that the solid little girl who's crawling at the speed of light and cruising with more and more confidence every day could have ever been a mere 5 lbs. You can easily see the strength of her spirit the way she jabbers her gibberish so excitedly like she has something very important to say. When I watch her climb over her sister to get to a toy or just to grab a handful of Abby's hair it's easy to forget there was a time when she wasn't healthy. I think Maya's stay in the hospital easily shaved 10 years off my life and in keeping with what looks like it will be a yearly thing she shaved another 10 off tonight.

We had a pretty low key night. The big birthday bash is planned for tomorrow afternoon. For tonight Abby and Daddy made Maya a little birthday cake in Abby's trusty Easy Bake oven.



Maya was eager to just dive right in, after sharing some with her sister of course. I was surprised she ate the entire thing and made a very impressive mess while doing it.



After she had eaten every last morsel of cake Mike hosed her off and set her loose on the floor while I rounded up jammies for the girls. It was during this time that Maya gifted us with a diaper that can only be described as 'craptacular'. I have changed more than my fair share of dirty diapers in my combined parenting/baby sitting experience and have never in my life seen anything that closely resembled what we would found oozing out of her diaper. A variety of factors made it stand out; the smell (hot garbage with a hint of vomit), the amount (we're talking pounds here people) and the coverage of areas not encased by a diaper (95% of her upper torso). It was quickly determined a bath would be in order and Abby quickly determined that she was also in desperate need of some bathing as well.

Now that I bathe the girls together I have a pretty set routine. Abby gets the front of the tub, Maya gets the back. Maya gets washed first. Then I wash up Abby with one hand while trying to get Maya to:

a) stay in the back of the tub.
b) stay on her bum.
c) stop climbing over top of her sister.
d) stop attempting to drink bath water.
e) stop attempting to empty the shampoo bottles into the bath water.
f) stop trying to stand up.
g) stop attempting to unplug the drain.

Tonight in a nano second she managed to stand up and pitch herself out of the tub with the intention of landing face first on the floor. Don't ask me how because my hands were covered in shampoo and tea tree oil, but I managed to grab a hold of her thigh. Not a full grasp, but some sort of weird pinch that involved my right bicep and my left hand. I had saved her from smashing her face on the floor, but I couldn't rearrange us so I could pick her up. Maya was left dangling over the edge of the tub with her face inches from the floor. My panicked screams brought Mike to the bathroom instantly (also gave him a massive headache) and he was able to extract Maya from the very odd hold I had on her and successfully saved the day. Of course while our hearts were racing a mile a minute Maya was completely non plussed by the entire ordeal. Although I'm sure she would of had lots to say if her face had, indeed, met tile tonight.



Check out more pictures from tonight here.